Mycoelectronics: Bioprinted Living Fungal Bioelectronics for Artificial Sensation

Abstract

The intelligence of the human biological system is enabled by the highly distributed sensing receptors on soft skin that can distinguish various stimulations or environmental cues, thus establishing the fundamental logic of sensing and physiological regulation or response. To replicate biological perception, two approaches have emerged: artificial nervous systems that utilize soft electronics as biomimetic receptors to convert external stimuli into frequency-encoded signals, and biohybrid solutions that integrate living cells, plants, or even live animals with electronic components to decode environmental cues for life-like sensations. However, most current biohybrid approaches for artificial sensation are based on eukaryotic cells, which suffer from slow growth, stringent culture conditions, environmental susceptibility, and short lifespans, thus limiting their integration into practical wearables or robotic sensory skins. Here, we introduce fungi-based printable "Mycoelectronics", which are created by additive bioprinting of living fungal mycelium networks onto stretchable electronics, as a practical living thermo-responsive sensory platform. This Mycoelectronics approach leverages fungis capacity for rapid biological responsiveness, cultivability with exponential growth, stability and self-healing in ambient conditions, bioprintability for scalable manufacturing, and mechanical flexibility for seamless integration with soft electronics. Critically, we discovered that the thermal responsiveness of the fungal network arises from intrinsic cellular processes--specifically, heat-induced vacuole remodeling and fusion, which modulate ionic transport and thus the electrical conductivity of the mycelial cells and networks, enabling a rapid temperature response. By bridging the gap between cell biology and soft electronics, the Mycoelectronics device with a living mycelium network functions as a thermal sensation system with rapid response and intrinsic self-healing properties, autonomously restoring sensing capabilities after damage or autonomously establishing sensor pathways in hard-to-reach locations. Furthermore, by integrating fungal thermal sensing with electronic circuits, we established a hybrid bioelectronic reflex arc that can actuate muscles and initiate diverse actions, suggesting promising applications in future neurorobotics and neuroprosthetics.